In late Spring, the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge hosted a cultural exchange that brought New Zealand blues duo Swamp Thing to the Capital City.
As 225 reports in a feature from the current issue, the band soaked up the Baton Rouge blues scene for a month as part of the exchange. Drummer/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Michael Barker and guitarist/vocalist Grant Haua performed at The Roux House and Teddy’s Juke Joint, among other venues, and got a taste of the deep south.
It was an eye-opening experience for the band.
“We’ve grown up with a lot of you guys’ Southern stuff,” Haua says. “There’s the literature, the South, the Mississippi River … I remember as a kid reading Huckleberry Finn. We went down to the Mississippi, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘This is Huckleberry Finn.'”
During their stay in Baton Rouge, the duo shot a music video for their latest single, “Boomtown.” They also taught a small group of child musicians at Baton Rouge Music Studios. And they got to taste crawfish, red beans and gumbo.
“I have been overwhelmed by people’s generosity,” Barker says. “It’s blown me away. It’s made me want to be more generous with everything when I get home.”
